


Let's Play a Game

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Gen, Mad King Ryan, Russian Roulette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 14:00:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1229056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Russian roulette, a game of chance and of luck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let's Play a Game

**Author's Note:**

> I know this kinda excludes the last two games of the recent Mad King Ryan let’s play, but shh, that’s unimportant right now.

If someone asked Ryan if he felt any regret sending the other men, people he had used to trust more than anything else, inside a room crafted for their demise he would simply smirk and shake his head ‘no’.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was, quite frankly, just his luck. Everyone else made it in and out of the room perfectly safe, so Jack wasn’t that surprised that when he entered the room that luck had left him alone in it.

He did have to admit, although only to himself, that the entire thing was expertly crafted. A room for Russian Roulette, allowing everyone’s luck to decide how things went. No strategy, no hunting, only pure chance. The ultimate gamble, and none of them were allowed to fold.

All of his other companions had made it out of the room unscathed, with nothing but pounding hearts and eyes wide with broken terror. So Jack knew the moment he went into the room last that he wasn’t going to make it out.

Jack stepped properly onto the red circle on the floor, tilting his head upward at the button only slightly out of reach that would be so easily pressed from a simple jump. He felt his pulse speed up in fear and anticipation, and he forced himself to leap up that small distance and press the button inward. Landing steadily enough onto his feet, Jack stared directly at the small glow stone in the corner of one of the walls. Even though he had accepted what was going to happen, he couldn’t help but send up a small prayer to whatever unmerciful god or goddess that might be listening to make that glow stone light up.

Make someone else be the victim. Make someone else take his place and let him leave alive. Make that one, simple piece of glow stone light up.

For a few moments there was nothing but the sound of his heavy breathing and the feeling of several pairs of eyes on his back, four mournful, and two malicious.

Jack hadn’t even noticed the arrows and fire charges had actually began to fire until he felt one of the arrows pierce his right shoulder, pushing him backwards but not completely onto the floor. After that, it was a complete blur for the most part. He couldn’t tell what hit him where, only that there was someone chuckling behind him and now something was in his throat, blocking off any air that may try to get through.

Jack couldn’t figure out when he felt the cold stone floor beneath him exactly, but he did know that there was some sort of warm liquid pooling around his fingers and that a metallic scent hung in the air alongside the fire smoke. He tried to focus on something that wasn’t the swirling smoke for long enough to figure out if what he determined as an arrow could be dislodged from his throat. Coughing hopelessly, Jack blinked rapidly (or he at least believed it to be rapid) and tried to get rid of the black dots in his vision. He felt his body grow more sluggish and the lack of proper oxygen was finally taking it’s complete toll on him.

The only thing before silence was the sound of one final arrow being fired and then falling with a clatter to the littered floor.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Geoff knew, deep down, that if he was a better man he would have moved. He would have moved to pull his friend out from the onslaught happening in the room before him and save him. However, he was not a better man. He was someone trying to save his own neck and if he had to watch those he cared about die doing it, it would end up happening.

He also knew, although not too far deep this time, more towards the surface, that this was all what Ryan wanted. For them to be so worried over their own lives that they had no more resistance to him. That there was no such thing as teams between them and that everyone was on their own and Geoff had fallen right into his ploy.

The moment Geoff was forced to enter that dreaded room again, it felt different than before. He felt like this was the end, that it would be the last time he would ever step foot into that room or any other place. And instead of horror and dread filling him, an odd sense of calmness swept across him. He couldn’t really argue with his fate in his opinion, it was what he deserved and nothing more. A spineless coward didn’t deserve to live in any king’s court – even the court of those who have gone mad – they deserved to be executed.

However, Geoff didn’t expect to be living and breathing after it all. He expected to be alive during the time he had to press the button, and when he had to wait those agonizing moments when the small vain hope within him tried to scream at the glow stone to light up, and even when the arrows and fire began to fire straight at him. He was expecting to have to suffer the entire way through and then have death take him. He didn’t take a moment to think that he would actually live through it all.

With the blood loss dimming his thoughts and breathing ragged, and with the cold floor as his final resting place, Geoff felt confused and tired. Since he lived, what was Ryan going to do with him? Geoff didn’t see the ‘Mad’ king hovering over him until he finally registered a shadow draping over his battered body. Looking up at the man he used to hold as a good friend, Geoff thought that maybe if he had done something the first time Ryan had touched power that a diamond pick axe wouldn’t be held high above him to finish him off.

Maybe Jack and himself would have gotten to live if he hadn’t thought nothing of Ryan’s behavior. Maybe he wouldn’t be bleeding and alone on hard stone if he hadn’t been a coward the entire time. Maybe he would have been able to fix everything gone wrong in the situation if he was a better man. Maybe, just maybe, he would have gotten a sword to go through him instead of a pitiful pick axe if he had just been a better man.

Geoff had his eyes closed before the axe even hit him. If only he was a better man.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Gavin wanted to stay calm. He wanted to face death in the eye and be able to enter the spirit realm with his head high. He couldn’t. He just couldn’t do it.

It took all his strength to keep himself from shaking horribly on the red spot in the middle of the room, not even able to look up at the glow stone in the corner to see what his fate was. He already knew the verdict. He was sentenced the moment Ray took a gamble and pressed the button a second time. When he had realized that he had actually wished that Ray’s second round would backfire on him and wind up killing him, he actually felt like the scum he had been forced to become for once. It was in that moment he completely noticed that he had lost all concern for his friends and was only worried about himself.

Even with those realizations in mind, Gavin was still terrified. He didn’t want to die, he didn’t think he deserved to. So what if he was damned to this fate the moment he went down here, what did he do to be condemned to this? He was an innocent man just like those before him and yet here he was about to be killed in a twisted game of luck. Luck. It always came down to luck, and it was just always something he never really had.

The Brit had let out a choked gasp when he felt to arrows pierce him at the same time. It came as a shock to him at first – when did the arrows and fire charges start going off? Biting his bottom lip, Gavin tried his best to stay silent. If he couldn’t die like his friends before him, he wasn’t going to give Ryan the satisfaction of hearing him yell. If there weretears beginning to fall down his cheeks, he would lie and say it was the heat of the fire making them water and try to keep the facade of going out calmly. Gavin was sure that by the time he collapsed to the floor that his bottom lip was destroyed from him biting it in an effort to not cry out in pain.

Slumping pathetically on the floor, Gavin pulled in ragged breath after ragged breath. His brain was screaming at him to get up, to somehow save himself from this fate. However he just lied still, staring out towards the glass into the small area behind it. He could have sworn he made eye contact with Ray through his watery sight, who promptly turned away from him. He couldn’t feel any sadness towards the action as it would only make him a hypocrite to feel offended. He couldn’t watch Jack or Geoff either.

Even if it was Ray’s technical fault for Gavin bleeding out onto the already filthy and bloodied floor, he couldn’t bring himself to place any blame on him. Even if he could be safe behind that glass window had Ray not done a second round, and even though he was terrified out of his mind and wanting nothing more than to desperately get rid of the burning feeling across his body, he couldn’t bring himself to blame the Puerto Rican. He was crying too hard for him to really find a reason to place blame on anyone but himself.

If Gavin was to be honest, out of all the ways he thought he would die, in a game of Russian Roulette forced by a former friend was not on of them. He didn’t want to die, he just wanted things to be normal again. That was his final dying wish, for it to all be a dream and for him to be safe. Gavin would admit that fact, that he couldn’t be calm and accepting like Jack or Geoff. He wanted to fight, but he felt himself grow weak with blood loss. Was his time up already?

He wondered briefly what would happen once he died and the fear in him increased. Would he dream or would there be a heaven or simply nothing there? What could be waiting for him? Geoff and Jack perhaps? Gavin thought about it for a moment more, blackness filling his vision faster than his blood could pool out. Deciding that his best choice was to close his eyes and find the answer himself, he left only his tears to mix in with the blood on the stone.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Out of everyone Michael always had the most fighting spirit. Before Ryan decided to lose his mind fully, Michael was always the one ready to fight and be right in the action. When they became trapped under the rule of a man with the mind of the corrupt however, Michael’s spirit was severely damaged, taking blow after blow. It was not completely crushed but was in small pieces.

In hindsight, Michael knew that they should have seen something like this coming. Constantly they were faced with the threat of death, but no one ever believed it would actually happen. That Ryan would actually kill everyone. How dreadfully wrong they all were, how overly-positive. They should have seen something like this coming and done something about it. They should have fought harder to bring Ryan to his senses and none of them should have broken so easily under his mind games.

They did break though, eventually, and they didn’t see what Ryan was planning until it was far too late. Fighting at this point would be useless to everyone – there was nothing to do that could fix everything anymore, not with three of the group already gone. So why did Michael feel his spirit rise and roar at the situation he was in? Standing on a small red circle and pressing a button that would most likely certify his death, why did he feel the urge to be defiant now?

There was nothing he could do now, not with the button pressed and waiting for the verdict to come but it only took him a few moments for his righteous spirit to make an amend to his final wishes.

Michael stood up straight in the middle of the room. If this was going to be final act as a live man, which was most likely the case, he was going to die with dignity. Ryan had taken so much from him and everyone he cared about, but he wasn’t going to let him have this. He wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing him break or accept what was going to happen. Even if it was the most painful mask in the world to keep, he would show that even if he was killed that he was not completely broken. He had not fully won.

Michael had seen the disgusting pleasure on the king’s face during everyone else’s death sentences, how he enjoyed seeing how he had won over them. He would show that while his spirit was in tatters, he had not completely torn it down. Even if the arrows in his back and the blasts to his front were severe in pain level, he would keep a straight face with eyes full of defiance. Even though he had fallen to the floor, bleeding and unable to get up, the spirit within him was growing stronger.

Bloodshed. So much bloodshed he had to see, watch his friends die while thanking that it wasn’t him. It was all Ryan’s fault and he was going to win for once. He was going to make the ‘Mad’ king see that he didn’t completely destroy everyone, and that’s most likely why he lived. He lived through the entire firing, stayed conscious through the pain and agony. He was able to stare and hold Ryan’s cold gaze behind the safety glass with cracked glasses and hazy eyes. Michael forced a grin onto his bloody lips and watch Ryan’s face grow from cold to murderous.

Even when the king’s right hand man came in with a sword brandished to kill him, he died with a twisted smile on his lips and his righteous spirit satisfied.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ryan had declared Ray the ‘winner’ of the roulette game after Michael’s death and then excused himself as he needed to attend to other things. It took the last of Ray’s strength to not walk into that room and press the button until he died along with the others. Ray instead turned and dragged himself up the stairs and away from the room that was filled with the smell of blood, fire, and death. He had more important things to do.

Most would think that he was going to figure out how to kill the king who had done the same to his friends, that he wanted revenge, but he didn’t. He was too tired for that kind of thinking. Maybe it would work for a different him, but not the one trapped in the shell he currently was. No, he needed to do at least one last thing before Ryan decided to find where he was.

Ray was going to mourn his friends deaths. He was going to go back to ruins of Achievement City (where it was absolutely forbidden to go near – entering the area was immediate death sentence, but Ray didn’t mind) and sit down near the blown up remains and cry and grieve over his fallen companions. Jack, Geoff, Gavin, and Michael. He would grieve for everyone who had died because of a man who lost his mind, a man they all called ‘friend’. He was going to go back to the city Geoff and Gavin worked so hard on and pay his last respects before allowing Ryan to find him there.

It didn’t matter if he knew that the king’s second in command was watching his with suspicious eyes, Ray was going to go to Achievement City one final time. He was going to think back over everything they had all done, and sob until his throat hurt and no more tears fell. He would visit the ruins of all the houses including his own and look at all the small things that would remind him of past times with his friends.

Perhaps he’ll plant a rose each for them.

 


End file.
